MAKE A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE ENVIRONMENT

Smart grids and smart meters offer many ways to help make a real contribution to a more sustainable environment.

1. Saving energy through the use of smart meters

Reducing energy consumption is not only beneficial for your wallet, but also for the environment. When producing energy from fossil fuels, carbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted and pollution increases. This is one of the major causes of global warming. While we are still reliant on these energy sources, using less energy means less CO2 is released.

A smart meter connected to a smart grid gives consumers like you regular information about how much energy you are actually using and when.

Recent studies have shown us how European households have managed to reduce their energy consumption by an average of 10% using smart meters.

2. Better integrating renewable energy

Europe continues to work towards its target of dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions like C02 that contribute to global warming.

As part of those efforts, renewable energy from wind power and solar is progressively making up more of our energy supply. We will not always have fossil fuel resources, such as gas, and we want to be less dependent on resources coming from foreign countries.

These renewables are of course weather-dependent and as such do not produce the same constant or predictable supply of electricity as conventional power plants.

Smart grids provide the tools and technology to properly integrate, monitor and manage the variable energy supplied by renewables.

3. Integrating electric vehicles

Electric vehicles will become more and more common in the coming decades, and will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.

Smart grid technologies provide the infrastructure to use e-vehicles while keeping the electricity system stable.

Smart meters installed in public charging poles help to ensure you are accurately billed when using them.

4. Using less resources

Many of you probably would not imagine the amount of energy and materials needed to produce and install the pylons, cables, equipment, structures and supporting roads that conventional, physical grid expansion demands.

New smart technologies allow us to modernise our existing electricity grid without the need to physically expand it.

So, adding smart technology to the grid saves us not only a significant amount of energy and resources, but also
importantly the greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing them.